Lucky 13: Roussillon

Day #13 of 30 paintings with my non-dominate hand

The Provence area of France is chock full of tiny little towns perched high on a hill and surrounded by a wall for fortification.  One such village we explored was Roussillon.  We actually set out on a mission to find me authentic hand made pastels which come from the sands of the surrounding red-ocre mountains. ( Most of these small villages have very few sustainable businesses and are threatening to die out simply because the young flock to jobs in the city.)  As quaint as the towns are it was the approach, or the distant view, that I loved seeing the most.  So on Day #13 I decided to paint Roussillon.

5 x 5 watercolor, Roussillon

 This was my first attempt.  It was time consuming and laborious.  I was way too concerned about referencing my photo and i somehow found myself backed into corners and lost on meandering paths.  Not a lot of fun.  Just as I was thinking that day 13 was UNlucky I decided to give it one more pass...quick and dirty with more regard to how I remembered the scene feeling, as opposed to what the camera said.

I lay out my colors on gut: no pencil guides, very little planning, get in/get out.  I closed my eyes and remembered being in the car looking up towards the city.

7" x 5" watercolor Roussillon Redux

Almost a pleasant hour later here it is.  No attempt at realism...just the memory of lots of squarish buildings, all ochre and gold, tumbling down a hill til they are stopped by a wall.  There is a lot of clustered greenery in those reddish scenes as everything that is not paved is planted.  warm and cool.  done.  Day 13 to bed.

Does one appeal to you over the other?  Funny how similar they are, and no doubt because they were done on the same day with the same color palette.  Vote for your favorite in the comments section.  If you receive this by email just double click on the blog title and it will take you to the blog.  Scroll down and at the bottom you will see the word "comments."  enter your choice there....by doing it this way you can also see what others prefer.  Personally the jury is out....they will look different to me tomorrow!

Thanks for sharing the challenge.

#8 PEDALS....

You would assume that if you (or your hand memory) had mastered 'ovals' it would be a cinch to move on to 'circles,' no?  well, the answer to that is...no!  At least not a large circle...too long a line to think through and the thinking is evident via wiggles in the line.  Again i laid down some pencil figuring it would give me lots of lines to choose from in trying to ink in a circle.  This was fun....and while you may still see some flowers here, it was a relief not to fret over them exclusively.

"Pedals"

7" x 5"- watercolor and ink on paper

Day 8 in the left handed series

cindy michaud

www.lesliesaeta.com - for more daily work by others

Punting: Ovals and more ovals....

It has occurred to me that some of what is good about hand memory (like the ability to make a W automatically) is also bad when it comes to art.  With my off hand (i.e. my left or non-dom) to make a credible W my brain literally has to say: "make a downward sweep into a curved valley and go up and circle back down again for two joined loops. stop.  that is a W."  I imagine we all worked that way when first learning to write, bigger is easier and the tongue to one side of the mouth helps!  slow and somewhat tiring.  (the reason this can be detrimental in art is that too often we fail to see the real shape of a new and different W since our hand quickly defaults to the one it previously learned.)

after addressing my holiday cards I figured I had "taught" my off hand to make ovals....all sizes, since so much of cursive script is oval configurations.  So i chose a photo of flowers that was predominately nothing but differing sizes of ovals. i made a few guideline pencil marks so I could get my placements correct and then settled in for a few hours of doodling with a black pen.  The nice thing about working small (7x5) is that i can turn the page around where i lack leftie flexibility.

using a watercolor pencil i added a few pops of color, then went back and brushed some areas with water to turn the pencil into paint.

ok, done, and a relief after previous efforts....

perhaps i could have done more but for a daily "exercise" i figured there was enough time invested!  I call this "Ovals in a Pot."
That's enough flowers for the month....I'm ready to try something different.  Maybe ovals can be applied elsewhere?
stay tuned,
Cindy
p.s. don't forget that you can see what others are doing at www.lesliesaeta.blogspot.com

know when to fold......

I'm waving the white flag of surrender....
I'm folding this hand....
I'm over hyacinths...

Gamely I thought another run would result in a huge improvement over my not-so-pleasing results with the hyacinths.

Soft pillows of color, suggestions of what was to come....I tried a new approach remembering that watercolor is backwards to oil in that you paint your lights first.

but darn if the finished effort doesn't look exactly like the one for day 5!  how disappointing.  I think I got too hung up in trying to "say" hyacinth....and I am not fond of their rigid shape anyway (penile, I know, but too tree-like for a flower in my opinion.)

I should be very happy never to see another hyacinth on my canvas ever again.  The saving grace is that this failure helped me weed out one item as a future subject!  On to something totally different.....

colorfully yours,
cindy

p.s.  if you joined us late I will explain that I am participating in Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge on-line with close to 400 other artists around the world. Due to recent shoulder replacement surgery I am doing the challenge with my non-dominate hand...just to spice things up a bit!!  For thumbnails of other participants visit: www.lesliesaeta.blogspot.com